"Politicians and military leaders sound increasingly belligerent and defence doctrines more dangerous. Commentators and TV personalities are joining the bellicose chorus. It all looks as if the world is preparing for war," he wrote in an article for Time magazine.

He says: "...no problem is more urgent today than the militarization of politics and the new arms race. Stopping and reversing this ruinous race must be our top priority."

Gorbachev then adds, "The current situation is too dangerous."

Mr. Gorbachev issues a stark warning of a world where weapons of mass destruction were becoming cheaper and more readily available:

"While state budgets are struggling to fund people’s essential social needs, military spending is growing. Money is easily found for sophisticated weapons whose destructive power is comparable to that of the weapons of mass destruction; for submarines whose single salvo is capable of devastating half a continent; for missile defense systems that undermine strategic stability."

He listed some problems: “the militarisation of politics and the new arms races,” bellicose world leaders and a media that echoes them. Tanks and weapons in Europe - “placed closer to each other, as if to shoot point-blank.”

Gorbachev’s essay summarizes the lurching end of the Cold War in a few brief lines: “In the second half of the 1980s, together with the US, we launched a process of reducing nuclear weapons and lowering the nuclear threat.”

The reality wasn’t so neat, though it seemed impossible to bring a rapid stop to the world that had spent a century under the cloud of global war.

Gorbachev, who detailed his own efforts at denuclearization during the dying days of the Cold War, goes on to describe how the U.S. and Russia worked together in the late 80s to reduce their nuclear weapons

Gorbachev’s advice for the world was much the same: Do like he and former US presidents Reagan and Bush - whose co-operation and mutual disarmament may well have averted World War III.

Mr. Gorbachev says the US and Russian presidents should champion a resolution at the UN Security Council to guard against a nuclear conflict.

"I think the initiative to adopt such a resolution should come from Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin – the presidents of two nations that hold over 90% of the world’s nuclear arsenals and therefore bear a special responsibility," he wrote.

However, world leaders don't seem to share the same concerns:

During his presidential campaign, Mr. Trump said he was open to more countries, such as Japan and Saudi Arabia, developing nuclear weapons.

He tweeted in December: "The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes."

The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes

Mr. Gorbachev's dire warning came a day after the Doomsday Clock, which symbolises the current threat of global annihilation, was moved 30 seconds closer to midnight.

The scientists warned of "accidental, unauthorized, or inadvertent nuclear exchange between the United States and Russia," saying that the two countries had 800 warheads on high alert, ready to launch.